First time grow, need light advice

[hiroshi_87]

Hello...

First time grower here, trying to get a closet set up for an op.

Right now, I've got my nine seedlings on two Sunblaster 54w Fluorescents pumping about 9600 lumens. They're still pretty small and spindly, but I know I'm going to need more light soon. Do you recommend I get a couple more Sunblasters? Or some other type of lighting to augment them, perhaps some CFL's?

I'm getting a 600w HPS for flowering, but as of right now, I'm confused about exactly how much more lighting I'm going to need. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Brian

[Opie Yutts]

For 9 seedlings I would want at least a 400 watt MH for veg and 600 watt HPS for budding. Even better would be 600 and 1000, but both are going to make a lot of heat and it will need to be dealt with. Depends on the space too.

If you get cfl, just make sure it's blue for veg (5500K) and red for bloom (2200K).

Also be sure to read the sticky in this section.

[Opie Yutts]

If you can only get one expensive light, make sure it's red, like HPS is. It will work for veg too, but I would supplement it with 4 or so blue CFL's.

[hiroshi_87]

Thanks for the replies Opie. I'll take it into consideration. I'm trying to get a continuous grow going, with both a veg and flowering chamber... and I can really only afford the one 600w HPS at the moment. Also, electricity usage is a problem. I don't have a limit on my apt, since I pay the electricity bill, and the breakers are in my apt... only problem is, I don't know whether I could afford to have a MH and an HPS going at the same time.